Re: wanna build my own rpms

[Maher Awamy <muhri muhri net>]

On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, Greg Nagy wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> First question: should I? I have Mandrake 6.1. Are redhat rpms ok with this?
> Mandrake is supposed to be 99% compatible with RH.

Redhat RPMS worked for me on my Mandrake 6.0 box. It should work most of the
time.

> Let's say I'd compile. Is there some straightforward info on how to do this?
> I gave up on reading rpm docs, it was too much for me...
> 
> What are source rpms (.src.rpm)? Are they like .tar.gz only in rpm format,
> or are they (more or less) preconfigured for building .rpm?

Source RPMS are generated by the command rpm -ta file.tar.gz and can be built
then e.g:

rpm --build --traget=i586 src.rpm. name

> Do I build the software first, and then pack it, or is it done for me by
> rpm?

If the software has a .spec file then all you have to do is

rpm -tb file.tar.gz and it should output rpms in your rpm dir

> What command line options should I concentrate on (when reading the docs,
> cause I kinda got lost among these too...)? prefix dirs, optimizig?

--target optimizes for your cpu kind.

> It would be great if you could help me out. I still haven't managed to set
> up october gnome, and it's almost december... I just don't want to go ahead
> and build and install from source, it'd make upgrades a real pain...
> 

You won't successfully build all the rpms if the .spec files are messed up and
some of them are at least in my experience I had to edit two of them by hand!


Maher
-- 
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